Okay, I’ve got all these tunes in my iPod; now how do I get them to play on my car’s stereo system?
There are 2 ways…
- They sell a Car Radio adapter that you actually play the songs by tuning into a station on your radio… (easy way)
and it also charges the ipod…
or… If your Car has an audio-in jack… you can run a line to that fom the headphone jack in the ipod (That is what I did)
What is an ipod? I saw VW BEetle was giving them away with the sale of a car.
The iPod is a little memory chip in a box; you program it from your computer, it stores (an awesome number of) songs as computer files (I don’t remember which format) and will play them back, usually through headphone jacks.
Actual it is a (physically) small Hard Drive. (It also has quite a bit of RAM to reduce skipping and preserve battery life [by spiining down the HD]) It is Apple’s digital music player. Propaganda here: http://www.apple.com/ipod/
Brian
Arrrgh!!! I don’t believe it. I just got the 15 Gb model a couple of weeks ago, and now they’ve replaced it with a 20 Gb model at the same price. Damn!!!
It should also be mentioned that the iPod is the Best Birthday Present Ever. I’d be completely lost without mine.
And I must boast that my brother was one of the two Apple Computer engineers who invented the iPod hardware.
And when you but the 20 Gb model a 30 Gb will be available a few months later at the same price. Welcome to the wonderful world of computer related pricing. Cheaper and better are always on the horizon.
Hey is it true you should not/can not jog with an iPod or similar type MP3 player? I heard this and could not find any specific mention of it on any of the web sites. I would get one if I could use it for jogging.
It doesn’t make sense to me that you can’t but what do I know.
The trick to iPods and jogging is not to use a belt clip, but to hold it in your hand. It’s reading files off a hard drive, so if you thrash it around hard enough for a long enough period, it won’t be able to keep up the music that’s spooling out of its buffer.
Walloon, please tell your brother I love him.
I’ve been jogging with my iPod for over a year now, with no problems resulting. I’ve seen a few companies also making carrying cases for the Pod and advertise them specifically as ‘jogging cases’. I’ve got a armband case for mine, and it works out great.
Thanks GrandfatherTrout and Anamorphic.
So I am guessing that none of the companies state that you can not/should not use it for jogging.
Hey Anamorphic, I notice that you have an armband which should reduce the amount of jostling the iPod takes. Do yo know of anyone who has used a waist mounted clip?
Hey Waloon where can we get a SD discount? Those iPods are still quite expensive (pssst… I its heard to pay for those damn engineers).
Half.com is always a good site for used hardware.
My solution to the iPod-on-car-stereo conundrum is the ever classic tape adapter. Not the coolest looking solution, but I already had one and I didn’t feel like throwing down even more dinero at the time. Eventually I’ll probably get one of those nifty little radio adapters.
Another stupid iPod question: If I’m listening to it while it’s plugged into the AC adapter, it still drains the battery. Or at least appears to. It will be fully charged (says “Charged” and shows the non-animated lightning bolt/battery logo) then after listening for a while it will start charging again. Anyone else noticed this? In all other regards it works fine.
FYI, If you go the VW w/ iPod web page, they list exactly what hardware they provide for you to connect the two:
Belkin Mobile Cassette Adapter
Belkin TuneDok Car Holder
Belkin DC car charger
That’s as close as you get to an official solution.
Many thanks to all who responded.
The iTrip has been getting great press as the best of the available FM adapters. It comes with software that you load onto the iPod through your computer. Essentially, it creates an “iTrip” playlist, which contains every FM frequency as a separate, tiny file. You pick the frequency you want with your scrollwheel, your iPod briefly programs the iTrip, and you’re good to go. The range and clarity is quite excellent, from what I’ve heard, and it draws power from the iPod itself, so no need to muck about with batteries.
I think the iPod is the greatest invention in the history of mankind. That said, I was disappointed in the options for in-car play when I got it. I think the various FM adapters sound like doots and the tape deck thing isn’t much better. But then I found an adapter that converts the cd-changer jack on the head unit into RCA inputs.
I got mine from this place. They call it an AUX/MP3 INTERFACE. As I recall, when I bought mine there were several different manufacturers making them, each makier covering a slightly different spread of cars.
There’s a little bit of hardware in the converter that makes the head unit think the iPod is always playing disc 1, track 1.
The iPod is the best-designed piece of consumer electronics I’ve ever seen. Really.
In the car, I use one of those casette-deck adapters. The only problems I have with it: one, my car tape player tries to advance to the next track when it encounter silence, so it can get confused sometimes if I don’t have the levels on the iPod set right. And of course it’s not as convenient as having a built-in CD or casette player; you have to operate the iPod independently, and you have to remember to turn it off when you get out of the car.
I’ve heard bad stuff about the Belkin FM transmitters as well as the “iRock” transmitter. Apparently they get pretty lousy reception. The iTrip mentioned earlier seems to fix these problems, but it doesn’t work with the new models (yet).
To answer Ender_Will’s question about charging: It’s probably easier to not have two different power sources to play from, so it just always uses the battery. Once it drops below some threshold, it starts charging again, maybe because it’s bad to overcharge a battery. That’s just a guess, but it makes sense to me.